Star Wars: Resurgence
by Moth Mothman
Summary: At the height of the Yuuzhan Vong War, young Jedi Knights Cassis and Violet Tovar are sent to take care of a Dark Jedi known to be giving information to the Vong, but when they end up on Korriban, things take a turn for the worst, turning a simple task into something much larger than anyone could have anticipated.
1. Mandalore

**Part I: _The Ties That Bind_**

**27 ABY**

**neutral space**

**east of Mandalorian territories**

The old shuttle groaned as it lurched out of hyperspace, slowly, but with determination, approaching a similarly dated star destroyer- an Imperial I, by the looks of it. It was by the order of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker himself that he had been called all the way out here to the middle of, in the fullest sense of the word, nowhere.

As he neared the coordinates given to him, though, Cassis couldn't help but feel apprehensive, and his Master's own hesitance with passing on the message played no small part. She tended to be more headstrong, more arrogant, and she and Skywalker butted heads regularly...but this was different, out of the ordinary. She hadn't been there in person, but he knew his Master well, and he could all but feel her nervousness across the stars and through the holoprojector.

After a brief moment of internal conflict, he chose to at least attempt to push such thoughts to the back of his mind. He knew this sort of thing would pick at his mind quite violently, quite relentlessly, and he preferred to not be distracted while hearing potentially vital orders. Aside from that, while it wasn't a full break from the war, it was much better than being on the front lines, and he planned to take advantage of it as much as he could.

"_This is Star Destroyer _Evader. _Please identify yourself,_" a voice came over the radio. "_Repeat, please identify yourself._"

"Jedi Cassis Tovar," he replied. "Skywalker called me here."

"_Ah, of course. The starboard hangar will be open for you, sir."_

As he landed and came down the ramp, his Master was there to greet him, her stark red eyes shimmering in the hangar's beaming fluorescent light, contrasted by her deep blue skin. Adari Kassal had, for over a decade, been somewhat of a parental figure to him. When he and his sister had first been transferred to Yavin IV from their home on Naboo, she had been the first to greet them, to introduce them to their new life, and as her Padawan, he had always sensed a rather strong Force bond between them; though at least some sort of Force bond was quite regular among Masters and their Padawans. If he were to have children, he sometimes considered, Adari might be a grandmother of sorts to them.

"Master, it's good to see you again," he said. "You're still alive."

"Did you think I wouldn't be?" she asked, letting a moment pass before continuing with a slight grin. "I thought not. I'm not that lucky, and you aren't that stupid. At least I hope you aren't."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence."

"That said," Adari continued, "Master Skywalker is waiting for you. You sister and Master Talrand are here as well. Let's get going- we haven't a moment to waste."

Cassis hadn't seen or spoken to Violet, his sister, in nearly a year- something, being twins, they had always thought an impossible feat. Through their childhood on the Nabooan countryside, their basic training on Yavin IV, and even through the later stages of their adolescence, little more than a month had passed without a word exchanged between them. Part of him began to wonder how much she had changed, if she was any different from when he had last seen her, though the rest of him knew -hoped- her stubborn mind was not one to make a drastic change in such a short time. While Cassis was often the more impulsive of the two, she had always been rather stubborn. She had also, from his point of view, at least, always been the more emotional one, contrary as it was to the Jedi Way.

As they continued down _Evader_'s long, winding hallways, he still was unable to shake the feeling that something wasn't right, Adari's subtle, subconscious clues burned into the back of his mind's eye. Over the years, he had begun to pick up on many of her nervous ticks. The interruptions to the confidently nonchalant demeanor she usually exuded. The way her gaze drifted ever so slightly from his own. The way she pressed the tip of her thumb firmly against the side of her index finger, before releasing it for a brief interval.

"Master," he said finally, "You seemed... on edge, during our last conversation."

"On edge?"

"Right. As if you were worried about something."

"Skywalker and I...did not see eye to eye."

"As per usual."

"Correct."

"But this didn't feel like your usual frustration. It was more...I don't know...trepidation, than anything."

"Perhaps. I wouldn't exactly say I agree with your going on this mission...but you're going to find out soon enough."

She gave him a supportive nod as he keyed open the door to the conference room, and though this only prompted him to realize his own apprehension, he appreciated the kind gesture. The heavy durasteel door slid open to reveal a well-lit room with a round table surrounded by metal chairs- the type that was stuck in place on the floor and gave a soft but definite squeal as it turned, having not been serviced in decades. It reeked of the old Imperial design scheme, which was something he had come to loathe over the years.

Master Skywalker was seated at the table, Master Talrand -a tall, apathetic Zabrak- at his side, both engaged in what must have been some sort of deep conversation. Violet was not at the table, but pacing on the opposite side of the room, her hands clasped tightly behind her back, her eyes locked on the ground roughly a meter in front of her- a ritual she had maintained since childhood. As the door unlatched and slid open, her gaze jolted up from the floor to meet his own, her blue eyes at first startled, then joyful.

"Cassis," Skywalker greeted, "I expect you had a safe journey."

"As safe as a journey can be right now," he replied with a small nod.

"Good. We need you both in prime condition for this."

"Of course, Master."

"Please, take a seat. All of you," he motioned towards the unoccupied chairs, and they obliged. "Now," he began once they were all seated, "Master Ramlar, I'm going to let you take this one."

"I'm sure both of you are well aware of this mission's importance," he began. "I'm also sure your both wondering why, exactly, the two of you were called all the way out here, after all. To cut a rather long, rather expansive story short, there's a Dark Jedi we have suspected to be passing along information to the Yuuzhan Vong. As you can imagine…"

And so, Ramlar's speech began, with all the wit of a lobotomized nexu cub, all the vigor of a tree. The Zabrak's lukewarm, monotone voice washed over Cassis' ears with such indifference he began to seek out the ship's ambient noises, if only to contrast it. The thrusters' majestic roar, although significantly dampened, still managed to permeate the ship- all sixteen-hundred meters of it. It must have been a miracle the engineers hadn't all gone deaf by this point; but then again, he had never really spoken to any of them. Perhaps they _had_ all gone deaf, and he just hadn't noticed. He gained a certain level of relative enjoyment from imagining the engineers, with their large muscles and boiler suits, waving frantically to each other in lieu of speaking.

His mind drifted to a particular project he had done in school as a child: a research project on the Imperial I. Of course, in retrospect, it was quite rudimentary, merely an introduction to the concept of research- they had only been eight or nine, after all- though at the time, it had felt like one of the most daunting tasks he had taken on up to that point. Although many of the details had been lost to history, having had taken place nearly a decade and a half prior, there were still several that stuck out in his mind.

_The Imperial Star Destroyer has a 1 Class hyperdrive,_ he had written. He remembered having been quite proud of himself for spelling 'Imperial' correctly. Although it had been little more than a lucky guess, Violet was the only one who had been aware of this; and he ensured that the rest of his class would not find out- which they never did.

"You didn't listen to any of that, did you," Violet said once they had left the meeting room and were strolling through the halls.

"Most of it. Something about a Dark Jedi, something about the Vong...I was just going to ask Master Kassal about it afterwards. Her tolerance is much higher than mine."

She sighed, shaking her head. "I'll have to fill you in on the way there."

**Mandalore**

Adari had informant, he was told: a Twi'lek man who goes by Kel. He was one of many people in a large network of spies and bounty hunters commissioned by Adari with help Skywalker's wife, Mara, who herself had a number of connections within the underworld. Kel would be waiting in the bar next to Kal's Inn, a motel in the outer reaches of Keldabe. Violet had provided little in the way of information, but, he supposed, there was little else he needed, or cared, to know at this point.

It was an hourlong journey to Mandalore. As the shuttle emerged from hyperspace, Cassis felt himself being tugged forward the slightest bit as the small vessel slowed to what seemed like a halt- a feeling he got each time the ship stopped to readjust between hyperspace transits. It was, he was sure, a result of the old, weakening inertial dampeners. He glanced up to see the blue-green form of Mandalore on the other side of the viewport, looming in the distance.

Glancing at the map on his control panel, he saw that Keldabe was directly ahead of them. He cursed quietly under his breath, pulling out of their descent towards the ground. The shuttle being in as much disrepair as it was, he usually made sure to manually exit hyperspace a fraction of a second earlier than was predetermined by the navicomputer. Upon finishing a hyperspace transit, it was often moving too fast, often giving too little time to get the proper angle for entry. Too sharp and they'd slam into the atmosphere like a speeder into a duracrete wall. Too wide and they'd bounce across it, like a stone skipping across water. He'd have to make a loop around the planet. Parallel to the equator and opposite the planet's rotation was the fastest.

They touched down at midday in Keldabe Spaceport. It was a large field, consisting of a grid of permacrete slabs. In the south were smaller slabs for shuttles and starfighters, while in the north were larger ones freighters and corvettes. Upon closer inspection, one could see a network of pathways, along which ran a small army of taxis moving people from the landing pads to a large, gray and white building off to the east. As he and Violet exited their shuttle, one of the taxis came to meet them. The driver, an older man named Jaka, spoke with a thick Mandalorian accent. He had been a taxi driver at Keldabe Spaceport for thirty-eight years, first starting around the time the Clone Wars had begun. He remembered, he said, seeing an interview with Chancellor Palpatine regarding the Battle of Geonosis on the day he had applied for the job. The Clone Wars, Cassis noted to himself, had occurred much longer than thirty-eight years ago, though he neglected to say anything about it.

Jaka wished them a wonderful stay on Mandalore, before driving off and leaving them at a door, above which was etched 'Reception' in Galactic Basic and Mando'a, as well as in a variety of languages in smaller text- only a few of which he was able to pick out. Naboo he and Violet had spoken as children, and Shyriiwook's distinct characters were instantly recognizable.

The inside of the building was clean and minimalist, like much of Mandalore's modern architecture. The smooth, gray tiled floor was complemented by white walls and wooden ceiling. The receptionists' desk was fifty paces ahead of them, manned by three women in thinning blue uniforms.

"Can I help you?" one receptionist asked, her voice bearing a crisp Mando'a accent. She nearly had to yell over the noise of the crowd.

"A map, please," he said. She nodded and began sifting through a drawer.

"What brings you to Mandalore?"

"Jedi business," came Violet's absent reply.

"Ah," she produced a datapad from the drawer, setting it down in front of them. "Good luck, then, Masters Jedi."

On the datapad was a map of Keldabe in a language of the user's specification, as the woman had shown them before sending them on their way. For seventy-two credits, they rented a speeder from the lot across the street. It was sleek, red, with a closed top. Violet took the driver's seat.

Speeders drove on the right side of the street, like many places throughout the galaxy. Mandalorians, being as stubborn as they tended to be, made for a less than enjoyable time slogging through the city traffic. Not helping was Keldabe's rather tedious layout. The streets had a maze-like quality matched by few others.

"Vi, do we _have_ to go through the city center," Cassis pleaded as they drew closer to the more modern areas.

"The streets are straighter and wider there," she argued, not breaking her concentration.

"Right, but if we go around it there won't be as much traffic."

"There'll be traffic either way, we might as well have something nice to look at. After all, we're gonna be spending the whole trip in the slums anyway."

Cassis conceded and allowed her to continue driving. The city center, as he expected, was fairly dense, in spite of the wider streets. Having been recently renovated, it more closely resembled Sundari, the world's previous capital, than what came to mind when he thought of it. That image was reserved for the city's impoverished outer sector, with its rundown bars and tenements, its nigh ancient bare wooden structures, kept up only as necessary to continue standing.

It was twilight by the time they reached Kal's Inn. It was a small, cozy establishment located on a quiet street far in the west end of the city. The bar, fit snugly between the inn and another restaurant, was quite lively. The double doors were propped open with two hooks on the underside of the awning. As they entered the bar, a distinct musty smell washed over them. The wooden floor creaked loudly under their boots, though the bar's patrons paid them little mind.

Cassis scanned the bar for any signs of the informant. As had been promised, he was seated at a table near the back of the building, a mug in his hand from which he took occasional sips. His left hand was encased in a leather glove, while his right was cybernetic up to just above his wrist. His eyes darted over to them as they approached.

"Kel?" Violet asked.

He looked back ahead and leaned back in his chair. "You're Adari's people, I take it?" His voice was hoarse.

"That's right. We're told you have information for us. About the Dark Jedi."

"Indeed. Sit," he smacked his gloved hand down on the table, "We've got a lot to talk about."

Kel, they learned, was an old friend of Adari's. She had saved his life years ago, from a rowdy band of slavers on Ryloth, and he had offered her an enormous favor in return- though at the time she had simply given him a rain check and sent him on his way. That was until two months ago, when he received a message from a certain familiar Chiss Jedi requesting his services. Being a man of his word, he had requested that it be counted as payback for letting him live through the ordeal with the slavers, though he was certain Adari, being the kind woman she was, would insist on paying him either way.

The Dark Jedi, a Zabrak man named Yacco Tharo, was first discovered almost a year prior when a strike team vanished on Felucia. Their ship, Kel had been told, dropped off the scanners as it was going in for a landing. The men were found days later inside their ship, which had crashed thirty kilometers off-course. Many died in the crash, the rest were sliced up. He was last spotted yesterday in Sundary leaving a small spaceport on the north end of the city, in an old Corellian YG-4210 light freighter- the same he had been travelling in for the last eighteen or so days, according to Kel's informants. They suspected he would be travelling to Serenno to meet with an alleged cohort of his: The Slayer.

"The Slayer?" Cassis asked.

"Yeah. He's a local mercenary who supposedly lives on Serenno. Well, we _know_ he lives there; we just haven't pinned him down."

"That name's a bit gaudy, don't you think?" Violet asked.

"Eh...I didn't pick it," Kel chuckled, slurping away the last of his drink and setting the mug back down on the table. "Anyways, that's all I've got. I can come with you to Serenno if you want, but I gotta be back here by this time next week. If you guys want to leave, we oughta do it soon. It's getting late, and we don't want to be out too late in this part of town. I, ah, I assume you guys have a ship, right?"

"We have a shuttle," Cassis said. "It's just a beat up old Lambda, but does fly if you believe hard enough."

"What do you have against Lambdas?" he leaned forward in his chair, his eyes narrowing as they darted between the two Jedi. Kel let out a hearty laugh before standing up and motioning for them to do the same.

"We've got a speeder too," Violet said. "It's parked right across the street."

"Gotcha. Hey Jazi!" he yelled to the bartender. "I'm taking these kids to Serenno. Put the drink on my tab." Jazi smiled and nodded as she waved him off, her attention taken by another customer.

The speeder, much to Cassis' relief, was still in the same spot across the street his sister had parked it half an hour earlier, its striking red paint and its swept back windshield both still intact. Also to his relief, the ride to Keldabe Spaceport was much faster than it had been previously. To humor him, Violet took the route he had originally suggested, going around the city center rather than through it. She insisted the shorter time was due to lighter traffic at night- but he knew better.


	2. Serenno Part 1

**A/N:**_The art is by VincentiusMatthew on DevniantArt- huge thanks to him. You can find it both on his profile and on my own, moth-jpg. There will be more as the story progresses, so keep an eye out for those._

**en route to Serenno**

In spite of his ship's constant state of relative disrepair, Cassis did manage to find it within himself to keep the communication systems more than adequately functional. He reasoned that, even if the rest of the ship were to go down, he ought to at least be able to call backup. His logic in doing this was somewhat flawed, he was well aware, though he opted to keep such facts at the back of his mind. Comforting thoughts were sparse in the midst of a war, and he had to take what he could get.

"Master, can you hear me?" he asked as her image formed above the holoprojector.

"_Loud and clear. Did you make contact with the contact?_"

"We did. We're on our way to Serreno with him."

"_Very good."_

"I still don't see why you were so worried about this mission. The most difficult thing we've encountered so far is the traffic in Keldabe."

"_I feel this could lead you both to a rather dark, dangerous place."_

"I've dealt with the Dark Side before."

"_I know, but...be careful_."

"We will, Master."

"_I don't doubt that. Truthfully, I worry more for your sister than you... but Master Ramlar has confidence in her abilities._"

"As do I."

"_I've been reassigned to the Tingel Arm, so I'll be nearby if you need an out; although I must inform you that I most likely won't be able to contact you for the remainder of the journey. For the usual reasons."_

"Classified information?"

"_Indeed. But I expect Kel will be an adequate guide, and I trust that you both will be able to see the mission through."_

"Thank you, Master. May the Force be with you," he said before closing the channel. He heard Violet enter the cockpit.

"How much longer?" she took a seat next to him.

"We're just under seven parsecs away. Three minutes, give or take."

"Awesome. Kel says he has friends on Serenno. I'm hoping he means more of Kassal's people, but it's hard to tell."

"Do we know how many people she's commissioned for this?"

"She's never told you about it?"

He shook his head. "I had an idea of what was going on, but since she and Mara Skywalker were the ones working on it, I always assumed anything more than that was classified; so I never bothered to ask for any details."

"Ah. One of _those_ situations."

"Right. Better go check on Kel; we're almost there."

* * *

**Serenno**

"Alright, kids, here we are," Kel said as they came down for a landing. They were in the middle of a large, grassy field, populated by a handful of other ships and worn down buildings.

"Not what I expected Serenno to look like," Violet mused. "I expected something more grand from such a wealthy world."

"Oh, the cities are beautiful. Absolutely stunning. This is just a rundown settlement," he began walking, his feet squishing as they clomped through the wet morning grass.

The town was a quiet place, a small bout of civilization in a sea of wilderness. Its buildings were beaten and broken from what must have been decades of being in disrepair. Despite this, they seemed much more than what they appeared to be. There was a history, a long past, hidden within them.

Kel had brought them there to speak with another informant- a friend of his, Armo Kasla, who was among the first brought on to track Tharo. Another old ally of Kassal's, he supposed.

They came to a stop in front of a small house near the edge of the town. It had faded white siding, and its windows were dirty and filled with cobwebs. Kel gave the door a single firm knock, and, after a moment, it opened a crack. There was a man on the other side. Through the opening, they could see his graying brown hair, which was frizzled and messy, and his untrimmed beard.

"Kel? What are you doing here?" he asked. His voice was slurred.

"These are Jedi," the Twi'lek replied, motioning towards the twins. "Kassal sent them. You remember her, right? The Chiss lady?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, her," he nodded. "I remember her. Armo's talking to her all the time."

"Can you take us to Armo?"

"Yeah, yeah, I can do that," he slammed the door shut and began unlatching it.

"That's Jhan. You'll have to excuse him," Kel murmured. "He's kinda...different."

The door swung open, revealing a home just as worn down on the inside as it was on the outside. Its wooden flooring was dusty and unswept, the paint on the duraplast walls was beginning to peel. The walls themselves were bare, the only decoration being a young wroshyr tree in a pot, off in the corner of the living area.

"He's down there," Jhan said, pointing a jagged finger towards a staircase to their left. "I bet you can find him." Kel nodded in thanks to the old man and led them down to the lower floor. At the bottom of the stairs was a metal door, sealed tightly shut. He began putting a number into the keypad on the wall next to it.

"It's open!" a voice yelled from inside. Kel shrugged and pulled the door open. The inside of this room was much different than the rest of the house. It was a brightly lit space with no windows Cassis could immediately see, filled with cluttered desks and tables. Most of it was communication equipment, from what he could make out. Armo sat at one of the tables, his eyes trained on a device he was examining. His blonde hair looked like it had been nearly combed, but it had begun to droop down into his face. He glanced up at them, setting down his things and standing up to shake their hands.

Armo had been there since the very beginning, operating the team's communications array. In fact, he had been the very first person Adari had called when she heard of the problem with Yacco. He seemed like a simple man, honored to be doing a task of such importance and humbled to be working with the Jedi. His father had been a Jedi, he claimed, who had survived Order 66 and moved to Tatooine's northern pole, where the temperature was not nearly as extreme as it was on the rest of the planet. After Vader came for his father, he and his mother lived in a variety of different places, from Kashyyyk, which Cassis presumed to have much to do with the wroshyr tree upstairs, to Tynna, and finally to Serenno. His mother still lived right down the street.

Jhan was an old friend of his who had moved in with him after having fallen on hard times, and even though he had become a drunk and a spice addict, Armo couldn't find the heart to kick him out. Besides that, he knew his way around a commlink, and an extra set of hands came in handy every now and again- even if said hands were, more often than not, sweaty and shaky.

This morning, Tharo had been seen in a nearby city- the alleged birthplace of Dooku. According to local legend his mother and father had been on vacation there when her water broke directly in front of the town hall and a passer-by, whose name had been lost, opted to lend them his strength, scooping the poor woman into his arms and carrying her all the way to the nearest hospital. The nearest hospital to the town hall, Armo told them with a smirk, was nearly twenty kilometers away on the opposite side of the city.

"Okay, tell us: where, specifically, was he?" Cassis asked.

"An old tenement on the east side of the city. In the slums. It's not too hard to get to," he stopped talking to push his hair out of his eyes. "On the road into town, take the first left after you pass the warehouse. Keep going straight. You can't miss it. Four fifteen- that's what the number is. You oughta hurry. You might still be able to catch some of his people there. Our people should be somewhere nearby, so keep an eye out for them."

"Thanks, Ar," Kel said. "You're right, we should get going."

"Oh, hey!" Armo said as they began to leave. "There's a speeder in the back. Use it, I don't want it here anymore." Kel nodded and continued.

The back was little more than they expected, just as disheveled as the rest of the property. Unlike the inside of the house, it was filled with junk, and wading through it was a less than joyous affair. According to Kel, the garbage in the back yard had somehow maintained the same level of coverage ever since Jhan had begun piling it up. He suspected Armo slowly disposed of it over time, as Jhan was too dim to notice his garbage not building up as much as he would like.

Jhan, he reminded them, was not a smart man.

Violet again took the driver's seat. The speeder was similar to the one they had rented, but it was an older model and the paint was scratched and faded. It took a substantial boost from the thrusters to get it moving.

"I can see why he wanted to get rid of it," she said once they had gotten onto the road. "Takes a Wookiee to turn it."

"Now that you mention it, I wouldn't have minded bringing a Wookiee along," Cassis replied.

"Have you ever met a Wookiee before, kid?" Kel asked. "Hardly the stealthy type. I'll say, though, a Wookiee friend is the best kind of friend to have. Loyal until the end."

"Think fast thoughts, boys." Violet pushed her boot down on the accelerator, and the speeder began to steadily gain momentum. "Strap in, too. Once this thing gets up to speed, I'd wager it isn't stopping for much."

Much to his surprise, Cassis found seatbelts tucked under the cushions. He opted to keep his lightsaber at the ready, taking satisfaction in the weight of its cold, durasteel casing. The firm, hard feel in his palm, contrasted by the comfort he found in his bond with the weapon. He focused, meditated on it. Its crystal, one of the standard Ilum types, called to him, just as he called to it- the same relationship shared by many Force users and their blades.

"A fine weapon, boy," Kel said, pointing towards the saber. "I hope Kassal did well teaching you how to use it."

"She's a powerful Jedi," he replied after a moment.

"Which you realize more than most, no doubt."

"And you're probably well aware of it as well, given your history with her."

"Yes, yes. She was the first Jedi I had ever met in person. Actually, she's the _only_ Jedi I've ever met in person. At least until you two came along."

As they neared the city, the transition was gradual. The road became more crowded as the nearby roads sought to funnel their drivers through a single entrance to the city. Traffic on Serenno, he noticed, was not as congested as it was in Keldabe. The stark countryside was slowly replaced by dense urban development. Alongside the road, walkways appeared, and then people- almost exclusively Humans.

"I bet that's the warehouse," Kel said, pointing a building just ahead of them. It was larger than most of the buildings surrounding it, and its wide, empty walls looked to be made of metal, rather than the usual duracrete. Violet took a left at the next intersection. As they continued down the road, their speed increased to correspond with the lighter traffic.

"Don't go too fast, kid," Kel warned. "There's a speed limit, y'know."

"We can deal with the police. Getting to that house is what's more important right now," she replied.

"Alright, but for the record: _I am not responsible for whatever happens_."

"We're coming up on four fifteen- there it is!" she brought the speeder to an easy stop in front of a tired, old building with "_BUILDING 415_" painted in black on the front wall.

"Yep. Looks like this is the place," Cassis said, climbing out of the speeder. The building was larger than he had expected. It shared the block with three other identical tenements, separated by alleyways large enough for a speeder to fit through with little concern. They were made of what he presumed to be Serenno's native wood. He doubted the people who built them would have cared enough to import anything.

He reached out through the Force, feeling the life inside the building. It reeked of the Dark Side.

"Yeah. This is definitely the place."

"You feel it too," Violet said, only half asking. He gave only an absent nod in response.

"You Jedi," Kel chuckled as they approached the door. "I don't understand you, but I'm assuming you know what you're doing."

The door was unlocked, and, despite a moment's hesitation, Violet pushed it open. The inside was oddly well-lit, in contrast to the dark, dingy aura that usually accompanied such places. It was spacious, comfortable, welcoming. The lobby was populated with lounging chairs and tables- a social area. The walls, presumably made of duraplast, were covered with a pale blue wallpaper that was peeling in various places. As they went beyond the entrance, the wooden floor creaked beneath their feet.

"Can I help you?" a middle-aged Human man approached them.

"Yes, actually, you can," Violet said. "Is Mr. Tharo here?"

"Hm...he was here this morning," the man said. "I can't guarantee he's still here, though. He could be. He could not be."

"If he were still here, could you tell us where we might find him?"

"I'm afraid you're on your own there. Never seen where he actually stays," the man began to walk away. "It's a small building, though!"

They would have to find out on their own. They reasoned with themselves that, even if Tharo wasn't there at the tenement, they could still gather some sort of useful conclusion from the experience. Perhaps some of his allies or The Slayer hadn't left yet, as Tharo almost certainly had.

It may have been a setup as well, Cassis knew. Maybe the man in the lobby knew both why they had come and where Tharo's room was; he did say it was a small building, after all. Perhaps he expected, perhaps he wanted, perhaps he meant for them to tear apart every room, searching it from floor to ceiling, from wall to wall. To inspect every nook, every cranny. To pull up every floorboard. To move every piece of furniture. If this was the case, were Tharo's allies ready for a fight? Were they facing an army or little more than a band of street criminals?

"Cas, you're overthinking it," Violet chided. "Let's let it happen. It's not like we can turn back now anyway."

He conceded with a sigh and followed them up the stairs. Although the layout of the second floor was much different than that of the first, consisting of a series of residential rooms in place of a lounge area, the decor was much the same, creaky floorboards and all.

As they reached the top of the staircase, Cassis paused, feeling into the Force. The Dark Side was strong. It was emanating from somewhere in the building- but not from a person. He didn't believe so, at least. There was a certain cloudiness when it came to people. Some were more pure than others, but there were few souls that were entirely black. Imperfections were almost always present; imperfections even an agent skilled in the Dark Side would struggle to mask.

"What's the hold up?" Kel asked. "Are you-" Violet placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Trust the Force," she said. "It will guide us." He imagined Kel rolling his eyes, though the Twi'lek was out of his sight.

The darkness beckoned him, called to him. He felt deeper into the Force, obtaining a sense of his surroundings, of the tenement. The further he sought out the source of the darkness, the more muddied it became as the life forces of all the other nearby beings began to mix in. He focused on it, in spite of his reservations with doing so.

It was above them.

Cassis glanced around for the way to the next floor, finding a set of stairs at the other end of the hallway, just similar to the ones they had just come up. He motioned for them to follow and began making his way towards it.

The third floor was much the same as the second- a residential area. There was a woman about halfway down the hallway, unlocking the door to her room. Her gaze shifted towards them as they came up the stairs, but quickly moved back to the task at hand as her door opened.

The darkness was much closer now. That much was quite obvious. By this point he could nearly hear it calling his name. It drew him to a door on the opposite end of the corridor. Although it bore a coat of light, pastel blue paint -just like all the other doors in the building- there was something different about it. Something sinister, like it was daring him to open it and see what was on the other side.

As he palmed for his lightsaber, he glanced back to Violet, giving her a nod in confirmation. There was an audible click as her lightsaber unhooked from her belt, a ratchet as Kel armed his blaster.


End file.
